I'm giving this 5 stars, cause I read this right after the last book and I thought that these few pages were just so much more entertaining that the whole last book. I loved that we got more background informations, really interesting and the way it was written, different and so easy to read.

Derek Hawthorne thinks this is a minor event with the Emerald Eye. He and his sister, Penny, are to intercept the transaction happening in the mall. But when he sees the head wizard of The Emerald Eye, Karl Bjornson or the Wazir, is meeting, things get deeper than he thought. Recovering a tube of a weaponized veil of blood, something to create flesh eating zombies out of all the people in a large radius, causing chaos and havoc among all alive and effected. Returning to the office, it's brought to his attention there is a mole in the Red Room, and Professor wants Derek to investigate the person how has access to information and to make the deadly virus. Derek's wife. Ex-wife. Believing his ex-wife couldn't be behind it all will open the door to many more troubles for the Red Room and Derek.

Jeffrey has voiced C.T.'s Supervillainy series and has become the voice for Derek and crew here too. The type of dry humor and spy work written by C.T. fits Jeffrey to the T. The personality of quick humor that Derek 'believes' and says with a straight face (yes, I can see the straight face in his voice) comes through in Jeffrey's voice. I have to smile!

Pay attention to the interaction and quick clips the characters say. This is one reason why I enjoy the audio as I get the banter back and forth in a flow of conversation. So many jokes! These are fun as the characters all blend well when the straight-faced lines are made between them, and someone always has a comeback.

Undead, magic, and spies. Heck yeah! There are so many quick clips and references to spy movies/shows, comics, even Disney movies, and so much more here! It's all blended with magic and mythical creatures of all cultures. I enjoyed seeing the blend of different cultures in supernatural beings here. Many different views and histories are behind them all, and it shows through with our characters and world here.

We get the best of two worlds here. Family and love interest. Derek Hawthorne is teamed up with his sister, Penny. I love that this is a sibling team. We don't have enough books with family teams. But the possibility of working with family here in this agency is high. When you enter the ranks, it's for life and your family joins too. Which means we get the good and bad relationships in the family here. Derek is assigned a new partner for the mission. I enjoy Shannon with him. She's the strong and crazy female balance to Derek's bold and crazy. They remind me of Riggs and Lorna in the Lethal Weapon movies at times. lol. But they are great together and always have fun banter back and forth.

Starting this book, I never thought how deep and twisted things would get. I see how Derek can see the twists when he describes them. But wow. lol.

Every word draws the world, characters, and plot as we go. So much information that grows all we know in the world. The further into the story we go, the more we realize that the House's, which the Red Room is under, are crazy! lol. They have agents spying and pinned against each other, for the House's sake to always know about other agents.

I feel C.T.'s dry humor with his characters comes through perfectly with Jeffrey's voice. I had to smile on several occasions at the quick wit that Derek throws back at everyone through the book. I do think if you enjoy Merciless in his Supervillainy series, you'll like Derek.

I know this is fiction but the closing statement by Ben I just loved and feels should be true in the world now as well.

This is the only book thus far, but there is openings to continue with Derek and all in the future. it is a spy agency that works to keep secret that magic and magical beings exists, so there is always room for more!

Derek Hawthorne and Shannon O’Reilly are agents of the Red Room, an ultra-secret spy agency dedicated to keeping the world in the dark about the danger (and the power) of the supernatural. Part of a global conspiracy called the House (who make the Illuminati look entirely trivial), the Red Room is kind of a combination of Torchwood andS.H.I.E.L.D., while Derek is equal partsJack Bauer and James Bond.

As a result, much of Esoterrorism will seem familiar to genre fans, but it's mythology of the House and the strength of the characters that serve to distinguish C.T. Phipps from those influences. This is a fun, action-packed book with just as much blood and gore as sarcasm and sexual innuendo.

The House is an organization with truly terrifying implications. It has existed since the days of Babylon, under the cover of the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, Project Blue Book, and even the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Division. It's a family organization, one into which you are either born, or which your entire family joins with you. At its head is a secret, elite Committee that manages and manipulates those family connections to a deplorable degree as part of its internal conspiracy. As for their impact upon the outside world, as Derek learns at one point, they don't control the world, they just "control the people who control the world."

Derek is your typical roguish hero who refuses to play by the rules. He's a good guy who understands the importance of protecting the world, but who questions the need to keep it ignorant. Shannon is his latest partner, a woman who has been assigned to him for complicated reasons, and who has equally complicated motives behind her allegiances. Phipps imbues them with the usual sarcastic banter and sexual tension you'd expect from the genre, but (thankfully) doesn't hinge the story on that tired old trope. They're supported by a diverse cast of characters, most notably Derek's sister (a fellow agent and witch) and her girlfriend (their gadget-loving 'Q'), who add a whole other layer of sarcasm and sexual tension.

There's a lot going on here, which serves to keep the story moving forward. There are complicated family dynamics, global conspiracies, questionable motives, traitors, and terrorists. There are serious questions as to whether the end can ever truly justify the means, and some interesting discussions about faith and belief. Phipps works hard to keep readers on their toes, teasing a question of loyalty throughout, and using it to feed a number of twists and turns in the plot. It's a fast-paced novel that accomplishes a lot of a very short time frame, but there's still substantial character development that bodes well for future installments.

Esoterrorism is a testosterone fueled urban fantasy, the perfect novel for fans of who are tired of the paranormal romance trope, and who want to see more of the action and adventure element. It's big, it's frantic, it's violent, and it's very often funny as well. Hopefully Derek and Shannon will be back for further adventures, as we've just scratched the surface of this new world and its mythologies.

Imagine for a moment Ian Fleming writing the opening scene of his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. Do you ever wonder where he got the inspiration for the world’s most famous spy? Several candidates have been named, but in Aaron Cooley’s Shaken, Not Stirred, the spy who helps a young Fleming is none other than Dušan Popov. Names are changed, Popov becomes Dusan Petrović and Fleming is Ioan Phlegm. Cooley’s Shaken, Not Stirred is a fictionalized account of Ian Fleming’s wartime work, but it’s easy to imagine it really happening. In Shaken, Not Stirred, a young Ioan is working for the Naval Intelligence and he’s sent to the Congo to find and report back to MI6 the whereabouts of double agent Dusan Petrović. His naiveté is apparent and he stands out like a sore thumb. While Petrović could have easily looked the other way, he takes Ioan under his wing and teaches him how to be a spy. At first Ioan isn’t sure what to make of Petrović and even the reader isn’t sure. Does Petrović have a master plan or does he feel sorry for Ioan? Perhaps this is the nature of a double agent. Together Ioan and Petrović navigate the perils of being agents and Ioan gets a little more than he anticipated. Throughout the novel, we get glimpses of what would eventually become Fleming’s James Bond. Ioan gets a code name and is introduced to gadgets Bond would be happy to use. We’re also introduced to would be Bond Girl, Christine who has a preference for martinis. It’s through Christine, Ioan quickly learns how women play a role in espionage. Petrović tells him, “ ‘ If you take one lesson from me, Phlegm, never forget the number one rule of espionage: Women are a business expense. You allow yourself to expect anything more out of them, you lower your defenses. To a knife in the back.’ ” It’s at this exact moment, a reader can understand Fleming and why women are the “business expense,” in a Bond novel.I really enjoyed Cooley’s Shaken, Not Stirred. It’s thoroughly researched and well written. It’s a different take on the life of Ian Fleming. Wouldn’t it be awesome if Fleming himself had experienced everything Cooley writes? Fiction mixes with reality and as I stated, Cooley does a superb job with the research. Several events included are based on true events such as the Heisenberg and Diebner rivalry and it goes hand in hand with Hitler’s pursuit of the bomb. Petrović and several other characters bring up the ‘what if’ Hitler gets the bomb, which is a question a lot of people asked themselves at the time. Cooley kept me on the edge of my seat and afterwards all I could think of was, “thank god Hitler didn’t get there first.” It’s something you’ll be thinking as you read. A note on the spelling used: it is British and might throw off the reader and mistake it for spelling mistakes. Keep in mind Cooley is writing as Fleming and hence the reason for the use of British spelling. Readers will easily recognize aspects of the Bond novels and films. In fact if you’ve read Casino Royale or seen the film version, the scene where Bond watches Le Chiffre at the card table is familiar in Shaken, Not Stirred. This time it’s with Ioan and Petrović and a set of cards with Skorzeny and a game of Baccarat. Prior to Iaon joining Petrović and Skorzeny, Petrović sends him a suit and Ioan asks why. Petrović says it’s to seduce Christine and here we can see the birth of the immaculate Bond in his tux. It works well enough for Ioan since Christine waits for him in his room and says, “ ‘Why Ioan. I thought spies were meant to be suave. Deboniar.’ ‘I was ill that day at spy school.’ ”Favorite quote: ‘If you fictionalized my character, I could live a bit longer.’Aaron Cooley’s Shaken, Not Stirred is without a doubt a must read for any James Bond fan. If you’ve wanted to try a spy thriller, this is a good starting point. I eagerly anticipate the next installment.Review originally posted at Literary, etc.

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